Whitman feels confident despite losing ground to Poizner

Meg Whitman talks about immigration, government reform and education at a campaign event in Camarillo.

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Meg Whitman, a former eBay CEO running for governor, meets with supporters after her presentation to The Ventura County Young Republicans at the Camarillo Ranch House in Camarillo, Thursday, May 20.

David K. Yamamoto/ Special to the Star

Meg Whitman, a former eBay CEO running for governor, speaks with The Ventura County Young Republicans at the Camarillo Ranch House in Camarillo, Thursday, May 20.

David K. Yamamoto/ Special to the Star

The governor's race has gotten dramatically closer between the GOP contenders with a surge in support for Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, but you wouldn't have known it watching a composed and on message Meg Whitman as she spoke to supporters in Camarillo on Thursday.

A new poll from the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California shows Poizner has gone from 50 percentage points back in March to within 9 points of Whitman, the former eBay CEO.

But at an almost two-hour long campaign stop at the Camarillo Ranch House — with a ready-made TV backdrop in a newly restored barn on the historic grounds operated by the Rancho Camarillo Foundation — Whitman said her opponents rise in the polls wasn't surprising.

"We did expect that the polls would tighten certainly as we drew closer to the election and as you know my opponent has spent $20 million in attack ads against me," she said in a short interview after the event.

She said she continues to focus her message on three main points: how to create jobs, improve schools, and cut government spending and waste.

"So I feel good about where we are," Whitman said. "I think you'll see some momentum back on our side, but I'm excited about it."

About 150 invited guests were at the event Thursday during which state Sen. Tony Strickland, R-Thousand Oaks, introduced Whitman. Strickland is co-chair of her campaign and running for state controller. He noted that he met Whitman when the two worked on former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's presidential campaign. Also on hand was Simi Valley City Councilman Barbra Williamson, who referred to Whitman's corporate approach. "Some say you can't run the government like a business," Williamson said. "Well, running it like a government hasn't worked well so maybe we should run it like a business."

Williamson said before the event that she likes Whitman because she "doesn't have any baggage."

While Whitman singled out her opponent's spending on attack ads, it's her own spending that has overshadowed everyone else in the race. At last count, her campaign had spent a record $68 million.

During her first campaign stop in Ventura County, Whitman reiterated her theme of having government focus on fewer things but doing those things better. But for all her laser focus on her campaign message — cutting billions in fraud and waste, pushing to grade schools and then giving them more autonomy to improve performance, and streamlining regulation to improve the business climate — Whitman was peppered with questions about the hot-button issue of immigration.

"First off, I want to make it absolutely clear that I am 100 percent against amnesty," she said in response to a question about whether the real problem with low performing schools has to do with the number of illegal immigrants in classrooms.

Poziner has said in an ad that Whitman lacked "courage and values to stand up to illegal immigration." But at the event, Whitman hammered on such things as a better system for employers to verify a worker's immigration status, tougher penalities for businesses who employee illegal immigrants, and "sending the National Guard to the border."

Whitman supporter George Burditt of Thousand Oaks, who was at the event Thursday and has helped on a Whitman phone bank, wrote her campaign asking that she take a stronger stance against illegal immigration.

"Jobs, spending and education. They all need serious help. And you come across as someone who has the desire and the wherewithal to start fixing a system that is completely non-functional," Burditt said in the letter. "You may have an occasional ad that we find annoying, but nobody's perfect. For the most part, we were all behind you. And then came Arizona."

Whitman has said she opposes the Arizona law, saying there are far more effective ways to stop illegal immigration.

"There probably are," Burditt said. "But to this date there has never been a government, state or federal (agency) that has taken the action necessary to stem the tide of illegal immigration. To expect the voters to suddenly trust the government to fix the problem is expecting way too much."